Oregon Zoo

Fifteen baby Western Pond Turtles arrived last week at the Oregon Zoo. Smaller than a nickel, the hatchlings are extremely vulnerable to predators. To give them a fighting chance, the tiny turtles were collected from the wild and will be reared in the Zoo’s turtle conservation lab until they’re big enough to go back to the pond.

“Baby turtles are really small when they hatch, so they’re the perfect size for a lot of animals to eat,” said Shelly Pettit, the Zoo's Senior Keeper for Reptiles and Amphibians. “And the biggest problem they have right now are the invasive, or introduced, bullfrogs — they prey on turtle hatchlings right out of the nest.”

Photo Credits: Oregon Zoo

The Western Pond Turtle is native to the United States. They are currently classified as “Vulnerable” by the IUCN. Several predators threaten this species, especially the hatchlings, due to their small size and soft shell.

Raccoons, otters, ospreys, coyotes, weasels, and bullfrogs are predatory threats to the Pond Turtle. The American Bullfrog is the largest frog species in North America. It can tip the scales at more than a pound and has been driving the Pond Turtle to the brink of extinction.

Last week, Pettit and her colleagues took charge of 15 Western Pond Turtle hatchlings, collected by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Service from sites in the Columbia Gorge. The zoo is “head-starting” these tiny turtles, caring for them until next spring when they will be large enough to avoid the bullfrogs and have a fighting chance on their own in the wild.

Unlike recovery programs for other endangered species like California Condors or Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterflies — which take place offsite or behind the scenes — this conservation effort is easy to see. Oregon Zoo visitors can watch the small turtles as they grow inside the zoo's Nature Exploration Station.

The turtles at the Zoo will experience summer year-round, with heat lamps and plentiful food, so they don’t go into hibernation.

“We keep these little turtles warm, safe and well-fed in the lab,” Pettit said. “As a result, they grow to about the size of a 3-year-old during the nine months that they stay with us.”

Once the turtles reach about 50 grams (a little more than 2 ounces), they are returned to their natural habitat and monitored for safety.

The Western Pond Turtle, once common from Baja California to the Puget Sound, is listed as an endangered species in Washington and a sensitive species in Oregon. Two decades ago, Western Pond Turtles were on the verge of completely dying out in Washington, with fewer than 100 left in the state. Since then, more than 1,500 zoo-head-started turtles have been released back into the wild.

“We’re at a critical point with this species,” said Pettit. “We really have to grow them up in their population numbers if we’re going to save them in time.”

The Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project is a collaborative effort by the Oregon Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bonneville Power Administration, USDA Forest Service and other partners.

The Oregon Zoo announced the arrival of a new kid. Mountain Goat, Sassy, gave birth May 20.

Mom and kid can be seen amid the rocky crags of the Zoo’s “Cascade Crest” habitat, just past the zoo’s main entrance.

Photo Credits: Kathy Street / Oregon Zoo

While mothers of some species keep their newborns hidden away for several weeks, Mountain Goat kids are typically on their feet within minutes after birth, quickly learning to navigate their sparse and rocky alpine environment.

Sassy’s kid was no exception, according to Amy Cutting, who oversees the zoo’s Great Northwest area. “She gave birth between 8 and 8:20 Saturday evening, and her kid was already on its feet by 8:30,” Cutting said. “We saw it do a playful hop less than an hour after it was born. Mountain Goat kids are extremely precocious.”

Zookeepers had been aware that Sassy was pregnant and saw signs of labor early in the afternoon before the birth, so they had been keeping a close watch into the night.

Now that the new kid has arrived, keepers will continue to observe the pair to ensure all is going well. However, it appears Sassy doesn’t seem to need any help, according to Cutting.

“Although Sassy’s a first-time mom, she grew up in a herd and has seen other births before,” Cutting said. “So far, she’s been very attentive and is nursing her kid regularly. The two have been heard vocalizing to each other and they seem to be bonding well.”

Caregivers won’t know whether the new kid is male or female until its first veterinary check, probably in about a week.

Cutting also shared that the Zoo’s other adult Mountain Goats (male Honovi, who is the father, and female Montane) seem unconcerned about the new arrival, and have been giving Sassy and her kid some space to get acquainted.

Montane is also believed to be pregnant, and could give birth within a month.

“We’re excited that Sassy went first, so Montane has a chance to observe her and hopefully learn a few things,” Cutting said.

Montane has not experienced birth before. She arrived at the Oregon Zoo in 2009 and was an orphan, rescued by Idaho wildlife officials.

In the Pacific Northwest, wild Mountain Goats live on various peaks in the Washington Cascades and across Oregon ranges, like the Elkhorns and Wallowas. They also can be seen on the Olympic Peninsula, where they are non-native — introduced there by a hunting group in the 1920s — and have become a threat to local wildlife.

In March, the National Park Service announced plans to relocate 90 percent of the Olympic Mountain Goat population to its native range. The Oregon Zoo has contributed $5,000 toward transport enclosures to aid in the effort.

A tiny, orphaned Cougar cub has briefly taken up residence behind the scenes at the Oregon Zoo’s veterinary medical center.

The cub, described as “loud and rambunctious” by zoo vet staff, was recently rescued by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers, after a landslide separated the young Cougar from its mother. After a short stopover in Portland, the cub will be headed to a new permanent home at the Minnesota Zoo.

“It was the victim of a landslide that occurred on Sunday [April 23] in Pend Oreille County,” said Rich Beausoleil, WDFW Bear and Cougar specialist. “A member of the public found it the day after in the mud and called WDFW.”

Photo Credits: Oregon Zoo

The cub, a five-week-old male weighing around four pounds, wouldn’t stand a chance alone in the wild, so Beausoleil contacted Oregon Zoo keeper, Michelle Schireman, who serves as the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ species coordinator for Cougars.

“Without a mother, young Cougars can’t survive on their own in the wild, so I work to find them good homes,” Schireman said. “We would rather they grow up with their moms, but when that’s not an option we want them to have the best lives possible.”

A tiny, critically endangered Rodrigues Flying Fox almost didn't live past her first day at the Oregon Zoo, but the pup is now one-month-old and well on the road to recovery.

"Rods," as Rodrigues Flying Foxes are often called in zoological circles, were once considered the most imperiled bat species on the planet, and each birth is considered an important step toward ensuring their long-term survival.

Oregon Zoo keepers were justifiably thrilled when, Sara, one of several Rodrigues Flying Foxes at the zoo's "bat cave," gave birth to a new pup on March 10. However, the day after the pup’s birth, excitement turned to concern when keepers found the tiny bat on the floor of the habitat, apparently rejected by her mom.

"Rods are big and fuzzy, and most of the time they keep their babies tucked up underneath a wing," said Laura Weiner, Senior Keeper for the zoo's Africa section. "When you see a baby on the ground, that's not a good sign."

The pup, which weighed less than 2 ounces, felt cold to the touch. Keepers scooped her up and rushed her to the zoo's veterinary medical center, where she was warmed, given fluids and determined to be in good health.

After several attempts to reunite the pup with her mother were met with rejection, the baby was returned to the vet hospital, where animal-care staff worked in shifts to administer formula feedings. She's out of ICU now, but she'll remain behind the scenes, until fall, during a long hand-rearing process that currently involves nine bottle feedings a day.

Photo Credits: Oregon Zoo

Weiner says the tiny survivor is not only "adorable," but a testament to one of the most inspiring conservation stories in history: living proof of the impact people can have, both positive and negative, on wildlife and species conservation.

"Every birth is significant for these bats," Weiner said. "Forty years ago, the Rodrigues Flying Fox was perilously close to extinction. The fact that they are here today shows what a difference people can make in helping wildlife."

The species is native only to Rodrigues, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean about 900 miles east of Madagascar, and plays an important ecological role on the island, where few other pollinators or seed dispersers exist. By the 1970s, much of this fruit bats' forest habitat had been cleared, and the species was on the brink extinction. After a cyclone hit the island in 1979, only 70 individuals remained, making the Rodrigues Flying Fox (Pteropus rodricensis) the most rare bat in the world.

The bats found a champion in English naturalist, Gerald Durrell, who translocated some survivors to form the nucleus of a breeding colony aimed at repopulating the species.

Although the Rodrigues Flying Fox is currently classified as “Critically Endangered” by the IUCN, the population has now increased to around 20,000, thanks to 40 years of conservation activity, including the Rodrigues Environmental Educator Project launched by the Philadelphia Zoo in 1998.

The Oregon Zoo began housing "Rods" in 1994, and has raised more than 40 pups since then, periodically sending bats to other zoos as part of the Rodrigues Flying Fox Species Survival Plan. (SSPs are Association of Zoos and Aquariums programs to ensure species that are threatened or endangered in the wild have sustainable populations in zoos and aquariums).

Tilly, a North American River Otter, is raising two tiny pups, born February 26 at the Oregon Zoo. The new arrivals — one male and one female — weighed around 4 ounces each at birth and have already doubled that thanks to their mother's naturally high-fat milk.

"Young River Otters are extremely dependent on their moms, and Tilly has been very nurturing," said Julie Christie, senior keeper for the zoo's North America area. "She did a great job raising her first two pups, Mo and Ziggy, both born in 2013. And she was a terrific adoptive mom to Little Pudding, the orphan pup who was rescued from a roadside in 2015. We expect she'll do well with her new babies as well."

Photo Credit: Oregon Zoo

Tilly and her pups are currently in a private maternity den, and it will likely be another month or two before visitors can see them in their Cascade Stream and Pond habitat. Young River Otters usually open their eyes after three to six weeks, and begin walking at about five weeks. Surprisingly, swimming does not come naturally to River Otters — pups must be taught to swim by their moms.

Keepers have yet to decide on a name for the two new pups, though it is likely they will be named after Oregon rivers or waterways like their older siblings.

"This will be the first time Tilly has raised more than one pup at a time," said curator Amy Cutting, who oversees the zoo's North America and marine life areas. "It's exciting that they'll be growing up together and have the opportunity to play and wrestle with each other. Tilly's always been an extremely attentive mother, so it will be interesting to see what happens when her pups go in two different directions."

Staff at the Oregon Zoo recorded a rare Humboldt Penguin chick as it peeked out of a tiny hole it had made in its egg in preparation for hatching.

Like most baby birds, Penguins use a sharp bump on their beak called an “egg tooth” to “pip” or create an opening in the eggshell. Once the initial hole is created, the bird creates a crack around the circumference of the egg, then uses its feet to kick the two halves of the egg apart. Hatching is usually completed with no help from the parents.

Photo Credit: Michael Durham/Oregon Zoo

The Penguin chick’s hatching went smoothly, and parents Blue and Esquela lavished attention on their new offspring. Adult penguins regurgitate their meals – which consist entirely of fish – creating a sort of “fish smoothie” for their chicks.

This high-fat, high-protein diet helps Penguin chicks grow rapidly, reaching adult size in about six months. But the chicks’ coloration gives their age away– they’ll remain grayish-brown for a few years before they develop their tuxedo-like black-and-white markings. Once the chicks lose their downy feathers and grow their smooth, waterproof, sub-adult plumage, they’ll begin swimming in the zoo’s Penguin habitat.

Several Penguin pairs are sitting on eggs, and the staff expects several more chicks to hatch before the end of breeding season.

Humboldt Penguins, which live along the coastlines of Peru and Chile, are classified as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and in 2010 were granted protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Of the world's 17 Penguin species, Humboldts are among the most at risk, threatened by overfishing of their prey species, entanglement in fishing nets, and breeding disruption due to commercial removal of the guano deposits where the Penguins lay their eggs. Their wild population is estimated at 12,000 breeding pairs.

It's Halloween, and that means zoo animals around the world are enjoying encounters with pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes. Animals' reactions to pumpkins vary, but critters may sniff, munch on, or completely destroy their pumpkin treats.

The pumpkins are more than a seasonal celebration - they serve as enrichment for zoo residents. Enrichment provides physical, mental, or sensory stimulation and encourages natural behaviors in animals. Happy Halloween from ZooBorns!

The Oregon Zoo’s two new Caracal kittens are now 6 weeks old, and they have just begun to explore their outdoor habitat in the zoo’s Predators of the Serengeti area.

Peggy and her kittens will have outdoor access from 10 am to 2 pm daily, weather permitting, but keepers say they will be easy to miss. “They’ve spent a lot of time out of view of visitors so far,” said Beth Foster, the zoo’s lead Caracal Keeper. “The space is still new and unfamiliar to them, so they’ve been hiding a lot, taking things slowly and sticking close to mom.”

Photo Credits: Michael Durham / Oregon ZooCaracals are elusive animals by nature, and even the full-grown cats can be hard to glimpse, according to Foster. She says the best time for zoo visitors to try their luck is right at 10 am, when they first go outside.

Under the watchful eye of their mom, the kittens ventured outside for the first time last week, toddling through hollow logs, hiding in the tall grass, and chirping for mom whenever they lost sight of her.

“Peggy’s been an excellent and very attentive mother,” Foster said. “When her little ones call, she comes right away to check on them.”

Peggy gave birth to the kittens last month in a behind-the-scenes maternity den. The two siblings have been healthy since day one and continue to grow rapidly. They now weigh about 2 to 3 pounds each and are just a bit bigger than domestic kittens — but with enormous paws and ears.

Cricket, the kittens’ father, will be on exhibit after 2 pm. Cricket was born at the Lory Park Zoo and Owl Sanctuary in South Africa, and moved to the Oregon Zoo in winter 2011. Peggy came to the zoo in 2009 from a conservation center in Mena, Ark.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which coordinates nationwide breeding programs for many of the species housed by zoos, recommended Cricket and Peggy as a breeding pair because the cats are from the same subspecies.

The zoo’s Caracal habitat, part of the Predators of the Serengeti exhibit, was built with substantial support from community members and organizations like Portland General Electric. The Caracals have access to a heated den and a spacious landscape dotted with trees, shrubs, heated rocks and grassy knolls.

Peggy, a Caracal living in the Oregon Zoo's Predators of the Serengeti area, gave birth to two kittens on September 11, and the Zoo recently shared their first video of the male and female siblings.

Adult Caracals are known for their huge black-tufted ears, which help them locate prey, but like all cats, they are born with eyes closed and ears folded down. At their two-week checkup, the female kitten's ears had already popped up, but the male's were still flat against his head.

Photo Credits: Shervin Hess / Oregon ZooAccording to keepers, Peggy and her babies are doing well, with both kittens nursing regularly and starting to move around their behind-the-scenes den box.

"Peggy has been a terrific mom," said senior Africa keeper Laura Weiner. "She's very protective. We put a bunch of straw in her den box as bedding, and she's been covering the little ones up with it, hiding them. Wild cats of all species hide their kittens like that to protect them from predators."

While Peggy and the kittens will be behind the scenes for a while, zoo visitors can still see the kittens' father, Cricket. Cricket was born at the Lory Park Zoo and Owl Sanctuary in South Africa, and moved to the Oregon Zoo in winter 2011. Peggy came to the zoo in 2009 from a conservation center in Mena, Ark.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which coordinates nationwide breeding programs for many of the species housed by zoos, recommended Cricket and Peggy as a breeding pair because the cats are from the same subspecies.

The Oregon Zoo's Caracal habitat, part of the Predators of the Serengeti exhibit, was built with substantial support from community members and organizations like Portland General Electric. The Caracals have access to a heated den and a spacious landscape dotted with trees, shrubs, heated rocks and grassy knolls, all of which are enriching for the feline residents.

The Caracal (Caracal caracal) is a medium-sized wild cat that is around 3.3 feet (one meter) long. It is sometimes called the desert lynx or African lynx, but it is not a member of the Lynx genus. The Caracal is native to Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, and Southwest Asia.

Three fuzzy, orphaned Cougar cubs have briefly taken up residence, behind the scenes, at the Oregon Zoo's veterinary medical center.

Photo Credits: Kathy Street / Oregon Zoo

At about 10-days-old, the cubs (two females and one male) were discovered in Washington State in mid-September. Upon rescuing the orphans, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials quickly contacted Oregon Zoo keeper Michelle Schireman, who serves as the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' species coordinator for Cougars.

"Without a mother, young Cougars can't survive on their own in the wild," Schireman said. "So I work to find them suitable homes. We have a couple of options we are considering right now, and the cubs should only be in our care for a couple of weeks at the most."

The cubs arrived in Portland Sept. 18, weighing just a pound and a half each. They had yet to cut their teeth, and their eyes were barely open — still cloudy blue and unable to focus. But since their arrival at the Zoo, they have been eating well and are very vocal, according to Schireman. "They're loud," she said. "When you come to feed them in the middle of the night, you can hear them all the way out in the parking lot."

In 2011, the American Association of Zoo Keepers recognized Schireman with a Certificate of Merit in Conservation for her "outstanding work developing an orphaned animal placement program." As AZA species coordinator, she has found homes for nearly 120 Cougar cubs in zoos around the country. Most of the Cougars currently living in U.S. zoos are orphans placed by Schireman.

"In most cases, we try to arrange for orphaned cubs to go directly to their new homes," Schireman said. "But in special situations, and depending on whether we have space, we sometimes take care of them at the zoo until their health has stabilized. It's a lot to ask of our staff, but everyone here is incredibly dedicated to helping wildlife. Our vet staff and keepers have been taking shifts to make sure the little ones receive around-the-clock care with bottle feedings every four hours.